Personal comment

I would be the first person to tell anyone I am not a writer, I have opinions like any other person. But writing is not my Gig. Why do you have a blog then? I hear you say!

Originally I started my blog, long ago under another name because I wanted to talk about technology and computers and internet freedom, you get the gist!
I am reasonably acquainted with html, css, javascript, I speak mac, windows and linux, and my studies continue. I don’t seem to find the time to sit down and write about it, and I have always struggled with what to say. I hear that happens to actual writers as well!

My wife Susan is a poet, she has a way with words that I admire and respect, to manipulate words like a good poem shows me how the words being the bricks can make so many different walls. It’s a gift I do not have, and I am ok with that, we all have to be different or the world would be very boring. I am the anti-poet to her poet, where she is the writer I am her tech support. It works really well and I wouldn’t change a thing.

I am a Lord of the Rings Tolkien nut, and I could at one point in my life recite poetry in either Sindarin (low Elvin) or Quenya (high Elvin) languages. While I love poetry and love how words can be manipulated to express visuals in so many ways, I have always found it difficult to express why I like a certain poem or not. The vocabulary to detail what is good or bad about some writing is missing in my head. I am not saying I am in some way stupid or inferior because even if I was I probably wouldn’t know it!!
I feel my head is just wired differently, which takes me back to why I am writing this today. I bet you were wondering about that!

I wrote a blog a few days ago, my monthly post. And Susan read it and made a lovely comment, because she is my biggest fan! And I went about my days knowing I had done my duty to wordpress and the blogging world in general. Two days later I went on wordpress and to my surprise I had comments to my post. You may think I am crazy but I hadn’t expected that, I don’t know why but it just wasn’t in my field of view. I felt a bit bad because I write a post then head off into the wilderness and I didn’t want anyone to think I was intentionally being rude. And through Susan I have met some very exquisite people in the blogging world. So to you I would say this, if I like your post I really mean it, but I may not comment very much. And if I go missing for a few days, it’s because I am in the other room!

Recently I have been very despondent with stuff going on, The US has lost respect as a world leader, our President is a joke, he lies openly and yet people still support this man. People have been fed propaganda against the press, and some believe it, and when people don’t understand what the truth is how can they make informed decisions.

It’s fairly obvious that due to climate change summer fire season is going to be a normal state of events. My heart goes out to the thousands of people who have been affected by the fires. I have had family stay with me when they had to evacuate their home. To see the look of devastation not knowing if you will have a home to go to or not is heartbreaking, it should be the primary focus of the government to prepare for a future where this is the new normal.

I know that some of the reason we had fires was due to utilities electrical equipment, and the utilities are complaining that that they cannot afford to keep paying out when there is a fire. The Governor is looking into giving the utilities a break from prosecution if they are known to be in regulatory compliance. And to be honest I see logic in this. If you can still sue some company when it’s doing what the state dictates and it’s not good enough, well we need to change the regulations!

Burying the electric cables is not an option due to cost and maintenance, it’s just easier to maintain a line overhead when you have access. This started me thinking that in this day and age there must be a mix of technologies that would in fact make it mush easier for people to have electricity and require no power lines at all.

It turns out the technology does exist, but as always it’s just around the corner, like the cure for cancer! This company Solar Windows seems to have one answer to electricity production for the future. My contention is with solar windows and roof panels and efficient storage we could eliminate the need for cables and utilities as we know them completely. But as always the move to efficiency is being held up because the power brokers still want to burn fossil fuels and don’t believe what the whole world can see! How do we as a nation get the stupid out of politics?

I can understand different people can have opinions about how to get something done. But they should be able to debate and prove why their way is better. The truth should be the arbiter not alternative facts or bluster, or rage, or disrespect!

I work in the security business, I also deal with other aspects of security in regards to the internet. This means bad bots & malware and privacy are things I focus on often.
I try to keep myself informed in regards to data and where it’s going these days, not just the general stupidity of Facebook. But also what will be the deal now that AI is taking over much more of the daily grind when it comes to pretty much anything online.
Google Duplex Demo:

It’s apparent that AI, machine learning is moving ahead in leaps and bounds. The world moves on and even though our fool of a president eliminates the cyber security department to allow his Russian friends to do their stuff unimpeded.
It’s still an issue that I want the people who can make our data safe as possible are in fact doing so?
The internet as you probably know is or has for a while been moving to mobile. Google ranks websites on not only loading times, security certificates, but also if the work on mobile devices. malware on mobile has increase and so has robocalls.
If you are interested on checking what google has on you they are fairly open and transparent about it. go here Google sign in and check your stuff.

For Apple go to Apple’s Privacy Policy page: (https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/)
Scroll down to the section titled “Access to Personal Information.” It’s worth reading and says explains that Apple will provide you with a copy of the information it holds if you request it.
Click the “Privacy Contact Form” link.
Choose your language.
Select “I have a question about privacy issues” from the drop-down box.
Fill in your first and last name, email, subject and comments.
Click submit.

Apple is much better with privacy, and Google is transparent, for Facebook we are just a commodity so don’t be surprised!
As for the future, if we can get passed the sharing our lives on the web without thinking about the consequences of how and what we share. AI will I think come to the rescue as computer systems can be taught to defend us.
AI will also be used to attack our systems and learn from it’s mistakes at speeds we can only imagine.
If I seem to contradict myself it’s because we are probably going to see both. To win we will have to take out the players, in the same way servers are taken when dark web actors are arrested these days.
I have a Facebook account, and I believe that Facebook learned a lesson after Trump won. You have a responsibility to the people who provide you with their data as much as you do to the companies you allow us the data to make money. I personally think Facebooks biggest mistake was the new Feed, Facebook isn’t a news source, it’s a social network, it takes no responsibility for the news it shares on it’s feeds. When legitimate news sites are not trusted and Facebook is we have a serious problem.
Our Data whether we like it or not is a commodity, and we should treat it as such. This feels like we are moving into Black Mirror territory!

I am sure Aldous Huxley will forgive me, I am sure nearly everyone who doesn’t watch Fox News has heard about the Sinclair group and how they are using local news outlets to spout propaganda for the Trump Administration.

We have a had a problem in the United States for probably more than a decade in regards to how people get their news. The biggest bad example would be Fox Mouth piece (always reminds me of the mouthpiece of Sauron the Lieutenant of Barad-dûr).

Distorted news is always an issue as an uninformed electorate can me manipulated much easier than an educated one. But the recent trend to just lie (alternative facts), is so disturbing it makes me wonder how this ignorant and proud of it trend can be reversed.

I can understand if you are indoctrinated that is what you know, but how can the United States compete in the future if we continue to allow the political parties to squander the future. And so called news outlets to treat the population as pawns to help the people in power stay in power.If the USA is ever going to be great again, because at the moment it’s not. The people who tell the lies must be shown to be what they truly are.

The future is for the young, I just hope they can get a decent enough education to be able to make an informed decision because too many adults today cannot.

My advice to anyone is get your news from multiple sources, I use BBC, NPR, RTE, NHK, The times is a good news source, but I don’t subscribe! maybe I should start since local news is now tainted!

Well it’s that time of the month so I will write a post! I have today suspended my Facebook account, over-reacting I hear you say; well I don’t really use the bloody thing and all I see are people sharing what somebody else produced. So the contact isn’t even one on one really, it’s also a sounding board for radical opinions one way or the other. And lastly I don’t wish to be data for a political action group either here or in the UK or even in Moscow.

I would like to thank my wife Susan for being an inspiration when it comes to the blog thing. Stories from the edge of blindness has been a true avenue for Susan to express how she feels as her life changes, either good or bad. And the excitement in her voice as she talks about her friends in blog world is a wonderful thing.

It’s raining in Los Angeles, which means my two Princess’s Blossom & Jade will be staying indoors. They don’t like rain, or getting their paws wet, or stepping in puddles. I shall follow their example!